ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Neurol.
Sec. Neurorehabilitation
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fneur.2025.1705975
This article is part of the Research TopicThe Regeneration and Intervention of Neurological Tissue after Acute and Chronic Injuries: from Benchside to BedsideView all 3 articles
Two minimally invasive fusion techniques for neurogenic claudication caused by degenerative lumbar spondylolisthesis: a minimum 2-year follow-up study
Provisionally accepted
- Sichuan Provincial Orthopaedic Hospital, Chengdu, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Aim: To compare the clinical and radiological outcomes of OLIF-AF and MIS-TLIF in patients suffering from single-level, low-grade degenerative lumbar spondylolisthesis that leads to neurogenic claudication. Methods: We conducted a retrospective study of 57 patients who presented with neurogenic claudication secondary to single-level degenerative lumbar spondylolisthesis and underwent surgical treatment between May 2018 and December 2022. Every patient had a follow-up period of at least two years. The recorded and compared data included the perioperative indicators, follow-up outcomes, and imaging parameters between the two groups. Results: Preoperatively, the two groups exhibited a comparable baseline in demographic data and clinical characteristics, including visual analog scale (VAS) scores, Oswestry Disability Index (ODI), disc height (DH), intervertebral space angle (ISA), and spinal canal cross-sectional area (CSA). Postoperatively, both groups exhibited significant improvements in VAS and ODI scores. The OLIF-AF group demonstrated superior clinical outcomes in terms of operative time (125.7±46.2 min vs. 202.1±66.4 min, P < 0.001), estimated blood loss (58.6±30.5 ml vs. 143.5±46.8 ml, P < 0.001), and length of hospital stay (8.6±2.5 days vs. 10.7±3.5 days, P = 0.009) compared to the MIS-TLIF group. However, the incidence of perioperative complications did not differ significantly between the two groups (16.1% vs. 19.2%, P > 0.05). Radiographic assessment at the 2-year follow-up revealed significantly greater improvements in disc height (DH), intervertebral space angle (ISA), and spinal canal cross-sectional area (CSA) in the OLIF-AF group (P < 0.05). At the 2-year follow-up, the two groups showed no significant difference in either interbody fusion rate (93.5% vs. 92.3%, P > 0.05) or cage subsidence rate (3.2% vs. 3.8%, P > 0.05). Although low back pain VAS, leg pain VAS, and ODI scores improved postoperatively in both groups compared with preoperative values, the OLIF-AF group showed greater improvement in low back pain VAS and ODI scores at 1 week and 3 months postoperatively. Conclusion: Both OLIF-AF and MIS-TLIF are efficient in treating neurogenic claudication resulting from degenerative lumbar spondylolisthesis (DLS). OLIF-AF is associated with a shorter operation duration, reduced surgical trauma, and faster early recovery, while maintaining long-term effectiveness and safety comparable to those of MIS-TLIF.
Keywords: Neurogenic claudication, Degenerative lumbar spondylolisthesis, Surgical technique, obliquelumbar interbody fusion, Transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion
Received: 15 Sep 2025; Accepted: 16 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Cui, Wang, Hou and Deng. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Xuan Geng Deng, tigerd@163.com
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.